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Connecticut not immune to ethanol's economic effect BY DAVID KRECHEVSKY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

A sticker on a gas pump at the Gulf station on Union Street in Waterbury on Thursday informs consumers that the gasoline contains 10 percent ethanol. Updated Environmental Protection Agency rules will allow up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline starting in 2014. David Krechevsky Republican-American

Connecticut does not produce any ethanol. Not one drop, according to state and federal data.

That doesn't mean the national push for the corn-based biofuel has had no effect here. From adversely affecting feed prices for farmers, which raises the price of the products they sell to consumers, to gumming up engines in boats and lawn equipment, few escape ethanol's reach.

"Everybody is impacted by ethanol," said Rigoberto A. Lopez, a professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Connecticut in Storrs and head of the school's Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics.

"It has increased the price of energy to all users, and has impacted the whole economy," Lopez said. "Connecticut is not immune."

Calculating ethanol's direct economic effect on the state, however, isn't easy. For example, state farms produce hundreds of thousands of tons of feed and sweet corn, but no agency tracks whether any of it is sent out of state for use in ethanol production.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service, Connecticut produced 352,000 tons of field corn — the kind used for feed — in 2011, the latest data available. The state also produced 7,752 tons of sweet corn that year.

By comparison, Vermont harvested 1.2 million tons of field corn in 2011, while Massachusetts produced nearly 16,000 tons of sweet corn.

Fred Carstensen, director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at UConn, said "relatively little corn from farms in Connecticut goes into ethanol."

He noted, though, that droughts in the Midwest the past two years severely affected the nation's corn crop, which "clearly spilled over into feed prices."

"This year, it's an absolute bumper crop," Carstensen added.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the nation's 2013 corn harvest will be nearly 14 billion bushels, the largest ever. That has caused the price of corn to plummet 41 percent in the past 12 months.

STUART HALL, GENERAL MANAGER of the Central Connecticut Co-Op Farmers Association in Manchester, which sells feed for farm and companion animals statewide, said this year's record harvest minimized the effects of ethanol production.

"Yes, ethanol does have an impact on feed prices, but you can see how the price has bottomed out because of supply," he said. "Supply has built back up and we are now seeing prices tumble because of it."

One positive side-effect of the nation's ethanol production, Hall said, is increased availability of distillers grain.

"It's a byproduct of ethanol production, and it has a higher protein content than corn," he said. "It's a more consistent product now, and higher quality than it was 10 to 15 years ago."

While he doesn't support subsidies for ethanol, Hall said ending production would also create problems.

"If you were to shut them down and take them out of the whole dynamic, it would cause a huge a hiccup in the marketplace," he said, "because there are a lot of people supplying corn to those ethanol plants and using the byproduct out of those plants."

MEANWHILE, MOTORISTS, BOATERS, and anyone using a lawnmower, chainsaw or gas-powered trimmer may already know that ethanol and gasoline don't mix well.

The gas sold at the pump is known as E10, meaning 10 percent of it is ethanol. With about 1.5 billion gallons of gasoline used in the state annually, that means about 150 million gallons of ethanol are sold along with it.

The first noticeable effect for motorists is that E10 reduces gas mileage.

"The mileage is ... about 2 to 3 percent worse," said Steve Guveyan, executive director of the Connecticut Petroleum Council. "The higher the blend, the greater the reduction in mileage."

He mentioned a higher blend because the federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved, though not yet mandated, increasing the ethanol content in gasoline to 15 percent. While sacrificing gas mileage is an issue, Guveyan says there are bigger ones.

"Cars are not designed to hold that, and car manufacturers ... warranties are specific: they say do not exceed 10 percent ethanol.," he said. "By going to E15, you exceed by 50 percent what the manufacturers recommend."

Most cars' fuel and diagnostic systems aren't designed for E15, he said, so if it causes a problem "it won't be covered by your warranty."

Service station tanks and fuel delivery systems also aren't designed to handle an ethanol content above 10 percent, he said.

Chris Herb, president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, which represents gas station owners and home heating oil distributors in the state, said talk of E15 "scares the crap" out of his members.

"Older vehicles that use E15 could have problems, and when those problems occur, the first person who gets sued will be the person who sold them the gas," Herb said. "I haven't found one (member) willing to take the risk" of selling it.

BOATERS ALSO COMPLAIN about ethanol, which separates from gasoline when left idle for extended periods.

"Ethanol will actually start settling in the tank, and if there is any kind of moisture — if it's a hot, humid day — it will actually start collecting water down in that tank," said Bruce Kemble of MarineMax-Brookfield Bay Marina & Yacht Club. "It will create all kinds of impurities in the gas, and it gets caught in the filters and starts plugging them up."

Kemble said this is "a real nasty issue" for engines with carburetors, less so for those with fuel injection.

Ethanol creates similar issues for gas-powered lawn and garden equipment, according to Skip Windischman, parts manager for Schmidts and Serafines True Value Hardware in Waterbury.

"We've been replacing stuff since it came out," Windischman said. "It's eating up any kind of a rubber part, and causing leaks in fuel lines. It eats some fuel filters up."

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